NFL: Week 1 Reaction

 We're back! Sorry I am a day late with this one, had a bunch of real work to do which got in the way of me roasting the Ravens. Really fun week 1, as it usually is. I managed to catch all of the prime time games, the full Steelers game and little bits and pieces of other 1pm games. Missed the 4:00 slot but you can't win them all. I think how I'll start to format this for this season is picking 3 games and commenting on those. If I feel like I should write more I will, and if there's a stat I want to cover I'll add a section, but the baseline for this will be commentary on 3 games I saw. Lets get to overreacting: 

Vikings Defense Is Scary

I think I want the Vikings to enter my inner circle of favorite teams this year. Of course the Steelers will always be #1, the Bills I'll always have a soft spot for due to proximity and Josh Allen, Jayden Daniels is the football love of my life so I gotta route for the Commanders too but Minnesota you can slide in at #4 for sure. Early in this one Caleb Williams looked great. The broadcast was talking about how he's great at making the highlight plays, but he needs to get better at making the easy plays as well. In his first drive he did just that hitting short pass after short pass, not trying to do too much. Pretty sure he finished that first drive something like 10/10 with a TD. On the other end, JJ McCarthy was off to a rough start. I remarked then and still think now, playing a division rival on the road for your first NFL start is probably the most hostile environment you could ask for. After the first quarter you would've thought the Bears are here, they finally have a guy who figured it out. 

Then all of the sudden, Caleb Williams and the Bears decided to abandon everything that worked for them early and the Bears offense fell apart. After starting 10/10 Williams went 11 for his next 24 and was doing what the broadcast said he shouldn't, trying to do too much. Some of this is on Caleb Williams, but I want to shout out that Minnesota defense as well. I think there's going to be a lot of games this season where they figure out the game plan early and completely shut it down. I love watching a team with a defense capable of keeping you in games, regardless of how your offense is playing. 

Then came JJ McCarthy's rise. Early in the third quarter McCarthy threw a terrible pick 6 to put the Bears up 17-6. The online discourse was raving about how much of a bust this guy was, eager to burry him after his first 33 minutes of professional football. The haters were abruptly shut up when McCarthy delivered a dominant end of third and fourth quarter scoring 21 unanswered points while the Vikings defense completely stonewalled the Bears. You could see McCarthy getting his confidence up in real time and it was beautiful to watch. Funnily enough the discourse flipped from this guy's a bust to this guy is prime Peyton Manning, never change internet. 

Daniel Jones is the New Sam Darnold

Feels like every year now another QB who was deemed ineffective and tossed aside figures it out in a new environment and proves he's a solid NFL starter. Last season was Sam Darnold, a season before that was Geno Smith and this year it's Daniel Jones. Week 1 is all about overreactions remember! But in all seriousness, Jones was really good in his Colts debut. He became the first QB to lead a scoring drive on every possession (7/7) since 1991, just like we all predicted. Jones finished with 272 yards, 1 TD on 22/29 in a game where the Dolphins just got embarrassed. These are great numbers and the Colts obviously did amazing, but I have to say the Dolphins do not have NFL caliber players at cornerback this season. I expect most teams to walk into Miami and get a career day from their QB this season. 

Still though, for narrative purposes I'm all in on this Daniel Jones resurgence. The fan reaction to benching Anthony Richardson in favour of Daniel Jones was pretty hilarious. I will say I can see it a little, Richardson is only 23 years old, the same age as Caleb Williams and a year younger than Jayden Daniels for reference. There's a lot of room to grow there for a guy that does have some elite tools. The problem is Richardson has been straight up terrible when given the chance to play. Daniel Jones may not offer the same upside, but I have to imagine in training camp the coaches saw a serviceable QB in Jones where they simply didn't in Richardson. Jones paid this off early with a great game in week 1 and I really hope he continues. I love seeing a guy shut the haters up. 

Haha Ravens

Saved the best for last! I was at family dinner as I am most Sundays and so I caught the first drive for the Bills, then missed the entire first half after that. I went to dinner thinking damn Josh Allen is a beast, Bills got this in the bag. Evidently after this the Bills showed they had no answer for Derrick Henry who ran wild on them along with Lamar Jackson to open up a 10 point lead that was cut to 3 by a Matt Prater field goal at the end of the half. I went to the Go train and immediately pulled the game up on my phone sitting at the front of the train right beside the room the conductor sits in. The Ravens looked unstoppable on offense coming out of the half scoring in the first 2 and a half minutes. The train rolled into Union station just as Josh Allen answered with a TD drive of his own but after a failed 2 point conversion the score was 27-19 for the Ravens. At this point the Go train crew was switching, the new conductor saw me watching the game, asked me what was going on, I told him and he responded "UGHHHHHHHHH I CAN'T BELIEVE I'M MISSING THIS :(" then closed the conductor room door sadly. Sorry dude, you missed an all timer. 

This one started to feel like it was slipping away when the Ravens scored again making it 34-19. Lamar Jackson and Derrick Henry are as close to an unstoppable force on offense as you can get and they were making the Bills defense look silly. To this point, the Bills were playing decently on offense, but their complete inability to stop the run was killing them on defense. The Bills still managed to score again and failed another 2 point conversion to make it 34-25 but on the very next drive Derrick Henry busted off a 46 yard TD run to give the Ravens a massive 40-25 lead, which would hold until 3:56 to go in the game. 

Then came one of the wilder finishes you'll ever see. Refusing to turn it off because I know how explosive the Bills offense can be, I watched Josh Allen find Keon Coleman for a TD, this time choosing to kick the extra point the Bills got it down to a 1 possession game. It was still a massive uphill battle especially given their struggles in stopping Baltimore's running game, but shockingly very early in the Ravens next possession Derrick Henry fumbles giving the Bills the ball back in scoring range with brand new life. They march back into the end zone at the 2 minute warning without using a timeout, but miss the 2 point try yet again. The Ravens get the ball back needing pretty much just a first down to escape with a narrow victory. The Bills stuff the first run attempt, and the second one. On third down the Ravens get it to within 3 yards of a first down. This was such a tough call because if you go for it and fail you practically hand the Bills a game winning field goal, but you also have Lamar Jackson who's maybe the best short yardage situational QBs in NFL history. The Ravens choose to trust their defense and punt the football. The Bills wasted no time marching down the field thanks to a massive gain on a connection to Keon Coleman from Josh Allen and then it was just a matter of running the clock and kicking the game winner. Veteran Matt Prater nailed the short attempt and the Ravens blew a 15 point lead with less than 4 min to go, a beautiful sight. 

What a game from the Bills and Josh Allen. Keon Coleman had a good rookie season, but he's looking even better this year and already is emerging as a favorite target for Josh Allen. The Bills have a lot to clean up after this one, they aren't going to win many games giving up 40 points, but they can rest easy this week knowing they escaped with a win. The Ravens looked like they're going to be the best offense in the league this season, especially with Henry running like he did, but that defense is definitely not what it used to be and there could be more fun (for me) games like this in their future. All around a great first Sunday nighter that I am sorry my Go train driver had to miss. 

And that's that! What a week! The Steelers are leading the division, road to the Superbowl has begun.